Conceptual Colours of Genco Gulan

Conceptual Colors of Genco Gülan is an analysis and introduction to the work and thought of the visual artist Genco Gülan, who since the mid-90s due to his conceptually complex and aesthetically pluralistic pieces, became a leading figure in Turkey's contemporary art scene. Besides founding his own museum as an art project, which later became an actual institution, and organizing the world's first Webbiennial for Net Art, his interdisciplinary and inter-medial work is vastly exhibited and collected nationally and abroad.

Next to an interactive DVD with the video work Scream, and short texts by 18 authors, the book contains an extensive interview that the artist and the art theorist Marcus Graf have made in Istanbul. There, they discussed his work as well as issues of Turkish society and its art scene, which permanently has to deal with various cultural, political and economic struggles. Conceptual Colors of Genco Gülan reveals certain reasons why the earth in Turkey is not only constantly shaking because of earthquakes but also because of shocks from fights between models of different cultures and civilizations.

The artist and author Nancy Atakan wrote that, in this book, Marcus Graf has probed deeply into the thought processes behind Genco Gülan's art to bring out intricate, yet totally meaningful details, so that the "colors" Gülan and Graf spread before the reader have many tones, many nuances, sometimes resplendent, sometimes diluted, but always intriguing. She thinks that now, one can only ponder how the conceptual rainbow will continue to expand and multiply.

In the end, Conceptual Colors of Genco Gülan presents how the artist, using Istanbul's chaos as main source for his work, questions the current state of our reality by deconstructing our current state of social disorder, and proposes strategies for a positive development of art and society.

With texts by Agricola de Cologne, Ahu Antmen, Ali Simsek, Andrej Tisma, Aysegül Sönmez, Baris Acar, Bill Barker, Firat Arapoglu, Göknur Gürcan, Hülya Küpçüoglu, Lale Babaoglu, Levent Çalikoglu, Nancy Atakan, Nilgün Özayten, Özgün Tanglay, Tim Hailey, Zehra Ipsiroglu, Zeynep Yasa Yaman

Marcus Graf (ed.)